Today's Word of the Day is Overwhelmed.  I am learning as much as I can from the sessions, but today I felt like I was grasping and snatching little tidbits out of context and conversation as often as I could.  By the time we started the movement session in the afternoon, I really couldn't come up with a physical representation of "progress".  I could feel myself fading slowly and surely and felt SO sorry for my poor group afterwards, as I tried to speak in complete sentences and be present as well as contribute to our lessons for the unit.  Sorry gals!

I think, I KNOW that I am not the type of learner that can sit for very long periods of time, and absorb information.  It is very hard to be on the other side of the classroom, and I am so glad for this experience and exposure as I consider applying to PhD programs in the next 2 years..I don't know. It just felt like there was quite a bit of monologue today, and not as much dialogue with my peers.  I am very thankful to learn from the panels we have been provided with, but I yearn to spend time with you teachers and learn about how they meet their students needs, or dialogue with some of you to see how you plan on implementing the enormous amount of information and experiences we have shared this week.  I wish there was time to digest and reflect, before we have to marathon think-pair-share our thoughts into lesson plans.  I do not even feel that I have been able to fully process the very, very important experiences, opinions and insights of our panelists yesterday, and I am having to make room for more today's content.

I also felt that I was not a very good audience this morning, as I felt the discussion evolving into an in depth explanation of  Islam in Nigeria, and a little about theocracies, but not as much as I would have hoped about faith, spirituality and religion and it's place in revolution and peace.  It is ABSOLUTELY possible that it was discussed, and I was simply not able to process that information. I was hoping for a more global discussion.

I hope that there is more time to hear about how you are all are processing what you are experiencing and learning, as I am so interested and blown away by the conversations that I am having within my group. I am reading the blog, but it just aint the same...  And KUDOS to you brave souls that volunteered to participate in the Theater of the Oppressed.  I bow down to you...I think that I was too intimidated to TRULY participate. Way to take one for the team!